Thermoelectric material (TE) is one of the important functional materials to realize the conversion of electricity from waste heat. Since SnTe contains toxic-free elements and possesses the high-symmetry rock salt crystal structure, it has gained much attention in the thermoelectric field. However, the pristine SnTe compound suffers from the poor electrical properties due to the high intrinsic carrier concentration, the small band gap, and large energy difference between light (L) and heavy (Σ) bands. Therefore, hunting for the effective dopants and exploring the influence mechanism of dopants on the thermoelectric properties (electrical properties) of SnTe are of great significance for further improving its thermoelectric performance.
The experimental advanced superconducting tokamak (EAST), or the Chinese "artificial sun," has achieved a continuous high-temperature plasma operation for 1,056 seconds in the latest experiment on Thursday, the longest time of operation of its kind in the world.
A research team led by Prof. WANG Yikun from Hefei Institutes of physical science(HFIPS), Chinese Academy of Sciences and Prof. ZHOU Jian from Shanghai Jiao Tong University Affiliated Sixth People's Hospital investigated systematically the role of AGE in development of diabetes and its complication. The team also proposed a new index for early identification of high-risk population of diabetic complication.
With the rapid development of industrialization and urbanization, large amount of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have been emitted into the atmosphere, causing serious air pollution. VOCs monitoring，like metal oxide semiconductor VOCs sensor, is usually small and low-cost. However, poor selectivity, especially for VOCs molecules, is the bottleneck that limits its applications. A research group led by prof. MENG Gang conducted a series of study on VOCs molecule recognition. Important breakthroughs were made recently. The expanded NiO based sensors and smart recognition system, which was constructed by thermally modulated metal oxide sensors, realized successful discrimination of multiple VOCs with similar structure and properties.
Kagome structure originated as an old Asian Bamboo basket with both trigonal and hexagonal structures. Recently, the coexistence of charge density wave (CDW) state and superconductivity has been discovered in a new type of quasi-two-dimensional Kagome system AV3Sb5 with the kagome lattice of V atoms. Although the charge density wave and superconductivity have been investigated intensively, the non-trivial electronic band structure have been rarely studied.